Cardinals power past Pickford, set up regional final showdown with Rudyard

By Jared Greenleafsports@cheboygantribune.com

Tuesday

Nov 6, 2018 at 11:28 PM

Fueled by strong serving, hitting and defense, the Cardinals took apart the Pickford Panthers in an impressive 3-0 victory (25-19, 25-12, 25-8) in a MHSAA Division 4 regional semifinal matchup in Mackinaw City.

MACKINAW CITY — Even after a dominant district showing last week, there was still a bit of a question mark on how the Onaway volleyball team would react to playing in a regional atmosphere.

After Tuesday, it's safe to say the Cardinals aren't worried by any type of environment they play in.

They simply look like a team on a mission.

Fueled by strong serving, hitting and defense, the Cardinals took apart the Pickford Panthers in an impressive 3-0 victory (25-19, 25-12, 25-8) in a MHSAA Division 4 regional semifinal matchup in Mackinaw City.

The victory sends the Cardinals (33-17) to Thursday's regional final in Mackinaw City, where they will take on Rudyard — a 3-0 semifinal winner over Pellston — at 6 p.m.

"It seemed like we started off kind of slow, but it just clicked together and we cruised the whole way," said Onaway senior Kennedy Crawford. "We seemed to do better when we could hardly hear ourselves talking. It's nice to have the fans that we have right now."

Leading the way early was junior Mallorie Neelis, who served eight straight points to help the Cardinals open up a 8-0 lead in the first set. While the Panthers came back to slice the lead to four later in the set, the Cardinals did more than enough to take a 1-0 lead in the match.

The serving came up big again in the second set for the Cardinals, who received three straight aces from Crawford to build a 6-2 lead. Leading 15-11, the Cardinals took complete control with a 5-0 run capped off by an ace from senior Calley Selke to make it a 20-11 advantage. The Cardinals closed the set in powerful fashion, with sophomore Breya Domke delivering two straight kills to help take a 2-0 lead in the match.

"We did some things that I told us we needed to do to win past tonight, which is serve tough and serve in," said Onaway coach Steve Watson. "Serving tough was something I thought we did really well. I was really pleased with Breya (Domke). She had one missed serve early, and I told her, 'You can't be ripping the ball. You've gotta be tough. We need your serve on the floor,' and she did a fantastic job. She served out the rest almost the rest of the third set, but the other kids did a great job there, too. I think our serve-receive could be a little cleaner, but I do feel it's the best one in the gym tonight. When push comes to shove, I feel like we've got a better advantage there than anybody else, and I think that helps."

In the third, the Cardinals again used the serving of Neelis to open up a 4-0 lead. The Cardinals completely blew the doors off later in the set, going on a 10-0 run to take a commanding 22-5 lead.

"I think that third set, (Pickford) checked out a little bit," Watson said. "We kinda controlled the match pretty well the whole time up until the third set, and I think if you're going to turn things around, I feel like you gotta keep it close early or try taking an early lead and putting pressure on us, and we jumped out to another big lead and just kept going."

Selke finished with 13 kills, three aces and nine digs for the Cardinals, who were also led by Crawford (six kills, five aces, seven digs), Neelis (22 assists, three aces, seven digs, block) and Domke (three kills, two digs). Others chipping in for the Cardinals were Sunny Flory (two kills, three digs), Malaurie McLean (five digs) and Jordan Larson (four digs).

For Watson, he was more than impressed with his team's composure on the regional stage.

"I think it helped being here for almost that whole first match, listening to those two crowds (Pellston and Rudyard) go back and forth," Watson said. "We're going to get more of the same on Thursday. Most of these girls, if not all of these girls, have seen this environment. They just hadn't been a part of it. I told them, 'Remember, we did this in districts in last year. Every time we play Rogers City in district finals, our crowd's crazy, their crowd's crazy, we've been down this road, just not at this level. Forget the level, you just have to go play inside the lines,' and that's what we talked about. I told them, 'I don't want to see you look in the crowd, I don't want you getting all giddy because our student section's having a good time. That's fine, let them have a good time. We're going to have a good time inside the court.'"

Next up for the Cardinals will be a showdown with Rudyard, which will be looking to defend its regional title it won last season. With a victory, the Cardinals will capture their first regional title since 2014.

"I look forward to it," Watson said. "We've been a pretty even matchup to (Rudyard) over the last two years. Obviously they have a huge height advantage, there's no question about that, so we've gotta keep the ball out of the net. We do a pretty good job of that usually, we don't put a lot of junk into the net. If we give up those puts, we give up those points, but I think serve situation, us serving tough, that's how you eliminate height. If you serve tough on a team, and they can't get the ball set up where they want to, that really evens the playing field quite a bit.

"They're 10th-ranked (in the state), we're honorable mention, none of that matters. We've been 'upset' the last few years in district, it doesn't matter. What matters is how good the teams are, and I think we're capable of winning, and we've just gotta go out there and execute."

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